BoE governor defends Brexit recession warning

Bank of England governor Mark Carney has defended his intervention in the debate over the UK’s membership of the European Union.
Mr Carney warned on Thursday that a UK vote to leave could cause a recession – sparking calls for him to resign.
But he told the Andrew Marr show he was independent of politics and was not suggesting how people should vote.
Mr Carney said the Bank’s role was to “identify risks, not to cross your fingers and hope risks would go away”.
Voters will be asked whether they want the country to stay in or leave the European Union on in the referendum on June 23.
Mr Carney said his comments about a possible recession, made when he appeared before the Treasury Select Committee, were about being “straight and transparent” with the British people.
He rejected suggestions he had breached the Bank’s impartiality mandate, and denied claims the remarks had emphasised only the downside of leaving the EU.
“Our central forecast is for Remain – we always take government policy, that’s the standard approach of the Bank of England – but we go into great detail about the risks around that,” he told Marr.
Mr Carney denied claims that he had overstepped the mark by making statements on EU membership.
“Absolutely not,” the governor said. The Bank should not “bend to political pressure from any side”.
He said it would have been wrong to wait until after the vote, “and then say ‘Oh, by the way this is what we thought at the time’.
“We also have a responsibility to explain risk and then take steps, because by explaining what we would do to mitigate them we reduce them.
“That is the key point – ignoring a risk is not to reduce it,” he said, according to BBC on Sunday night.